Originally published at: Even When Big Cases Intersect With Their Families’ Interests, Many Judges Choose Not to Recuse
This article first appeared at ProPublica. ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox. Soon after longtime New Orleans attorney Wendy Vitter became a federal judge in the Eastern District of Louisiana, she heard a lawsuit against the local government…
Once again, ProPublica brings it.
The judicial system has been infiltrated by fascists and self-serving far right conservatives. A thorough cleansing is long overdue. TFG just brought the festering boil to a head.
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Well if Trump, and the current crop of Republicans gain control again then the wimens will be back in the house cooking and cleaning. They can’t have a job outside the home because of the children.
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Seems a lot of judges that “should” recuse themselves fail to do so. And very few if any judges (i found 0) have had any consequences beyond public criticism for failure to recuse within the last 20 years, except a few who had a personal interest in the case and failed to recuse themselves.
Why should anyone continue to trust judges at any level to follow their own rules when there is no evidence of any penalty to them if when they break the rules?
Its not a few bad apples… the barrel itself is rotten.
Reminds me of the joke:
97% of lawyers give the rest a bad name.
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Jailing Thomas for accepting bribes could send out a message to these criminal judges.
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No wonder why public approval of the Supreme Court is hovering around its historic lowest point.
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Even When Big Cases Intersect With Their Families’ Interests, Many Judges Choose Not to Recuse
Ambiguous — and unenforced — recusal standards mean few checks and balances for top judges when cases involve their family members.“
Duh! It’s something they cover in the first week of How to be a Republican judge or “justice”.
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So what you’re saying is that our justice system is as broken as Congress?
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Especially crooked compromised conservatives.
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It will get worse. America’s are being conditioned to accept this corruption and that nothing is done about it. Because it’s damn near impossible to do anything about it. The folks that love to chant “rule of law” are grooming this country for “law of the Judge”.
If Thomas Jefferson had his way the Constitution would now be in its 13 edition and probably no Judge or Justice would gain office by appointment. Damn sure none of them would be appointed for life.
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Even When Big Cases Intersect With Their Families’ Interests, Many GOP Judges Choose Not to Recuse
Fixed it for you. Without the GOP it misleads the reader into thinking that “both sides” do it.
I submit, your Honour, that it is worse. A member Congress had at least a theoretical possibility of removal at the next election but a Judgeship is for life… 
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The problem is lack of oversight. Higher courts clearly aren’t holding judges on lower courts accountable, and no one can hold supreme courts accountable. We need to create recusal courts that can order even supreme court justices to recuse. That sounds like it would be above a supreme court and therefore another supreme court, but we solve that problem by limiting their jurisdiction purely to recusals.
The fix is not hard. Basically, there needs to be a federal law that requires all federal judges to disclose any financial interests they or their immediate family members may have in the outcome of a case before that judge. Enforcement is another issue of course. For their to be anti-corruption prosecutions there needs to be actual anti-corruption laws.